Compound kail fob railroads



' UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIOE.

CHARLES T. LIERNUR, OF MOBILE, ALABAMA.

COMPOUN'D RAIL FOR RAILROADS.

Specication of Letters Patent No.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES T. LIERNUR, civil engineer, of the city and county of Mobile, State of Alabama, have invented certain Improvements in t-he Construction of Continuous or Compound Rails for Railroads; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

The object of my improvement is to construct a. two part compound rail in which the head and bottom flange is left full and unbroken and which affords, lst, greater facility in its manufacture with more useful effect of the material employed, than is had by those heretofore used; 2d, greater facility in track laying, and, 3d, ease and economy in renewing that part, that alone is exposed to deterioration, without in any way disturbing the permanent footing or bottom part.

To enable others skilled in the art, to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation and show, how the above objects are accomplished.

As in all compound rails, the two parts which compose my rail are laid breaking oints with each other, and are fastened together with rivets or screwbolts. But to insure greater facility in its manufacture and to lessen the expense, I reduce the number of shoulders, or diierent features of the splice, to only one, which consist in the right angled or nearly right angled shoulder, formed by the vertical rib and enlarged footing of the top rail, (as shown at C) fitting in a corresponding seat formed in the bottom rail. Thus I avoid the necessity of an equal bearing of two shoulders, which in order to be perfect, requires an exact equal height of the vertical ribs; and in the manufacture of most compound rails heretofore used, this has proved itself nearly impracticable, on account of the rapid wearing of the rollers and the difiiculty of giving both parts of the rail the same degree of heat, producing when the iron is cooled off, ill fitting joints and unequal bearing surfaces. Besides experience has proved that the thickness of iron at the neck D of my top rail is amply sucient to support the head and any weight it ordinarily has to sustain, said thickness being the same as is 16,490, dated January 27, 1857.

difliculty in its manufacture, which could arise out of unequal heating or the wearing of the rollers; for the greater or lesser extent of the two sides of the angle or shoulder O, does not affect its fitting in the corresponding angle formed for its seat in the bottom rail. And thus by this arrangement, I have improved the compound rail, by taking away a feature which was useless, difficult to make and expensive in its construction.

That side of my rail to which the top-rail is fastened, is always to be on the inner side of the track, and in order to fit the conical shape of the car wheels, the upper-face of the head is, in its transverse section slightly inclined inward. The top rail itself consists of a heavy broad head, affording a wide tread for the car wheels, and is supported by a vertical ribwith parallel faces and of the usual dimensions. Where said rib rests on the bottom rail an enlargement or footing is formed to prevent indentation; the extent of said footing is to depend upon the size and weight of the whole rail.

The bottom rail consists of two flanges, a horizontal and a vertical one; the horizontal one has the size and shape of the bottom flange of the ordinary T rail, to be fastened to the crossties with spikes or screws, in the usual manner; the vertical flange of the bottom rail is placed upon it, at a point just sufficiently removed from the center, to form with the vertical rib of the top rail a central support for it. To the upper part of the vertical flange of the bottom rail I form a head A for the following purposes: 1st, to resist the compressive force that part of this rail is subjected to; 2d, to resist the lateral pressure the top rail exerts in leaning against it, and, 3d, to make it serve as a temporary rail during the operation of track laying, by rolling the truck cars loaded with iron over them. For this latter purpose, its peculiar shape is well adapted, for unlike in compounds rails heretofore used, a slight exfoliation or lamination, will not affect the well fitting of the top rail to the bottom rail; and to have a free use of this little head A, affords greater ease and more despatch in track laying--because the force of laborers employed can work over a larger extent of road and thus to more advantage by not being crowded up in so little a space. The cross tie layers can work ahead, laying the ties all at the same grade and at equal distance, Without reference to the rails or measuring back for joints. At the same time, a double force of iron-layers can be employed; one gang for laying the bottom rail, the car loaded with these rails following them and after the same are spiked down and alined, a second gang of ironlayers can follow to put on the top rails.

The vertical rib of the bottom rail has the outside plane sloping or battering, in the manner shown in the drawing, with the view of bringing as much material as possible at the place where the greatest amount of tensile resistance is required, that is as far removed from the neutral axis of resistance as possible; in case screwbolts are used it also answers, in addition to the head A itself, to hold them firm, while the nuts are screwed up.

I am aware that a great many two part compound rails have been designed and brought into use, more or less resembling my improvement, but none have the merit of such great simplicity of combination and nase of manufacture, or of application and removal, nor have they the material so advantageously disposed.

I do not claim as my invention the employment of a two part rail with unbroken top and bottom and with the division effected principally through the middle web, but

That I do claim and desire yto secure by Letters Patent is:

The combination of a two part compound rail for railroads, in which the head of the top rail and the lower flange of the bottom rail are each left undivided, the head of the top rail not resting on the upper part of the vertical rib B of the bottom rail, but supported alone by its own vertical rib, in such a manner that the upper part A of the vertical B of the bottom rail can be used as a temporary rail during track laying so that no deterioration resulting therefrom shall prevent the well fitting of both rails; and thus also giving to the top rail a support unaifected by the variations of dimensions occurring in the process of manufacture, through the rapid wearing of the rollers and the unequal heating of the iron.

CHARLES T. LIERNUR.

Attest:

JOHN S. HOLLINGSHEAD, W. A. Boss. 

